Talking Tom and Friends (TV series)

Talking Tom and Friends is an animated children's web series by Outfit7 Limited, based on the media franchise of the same name. The first three seasons of the show were produced by the Austrian animation-studio ARX Anima.[4][5] Starting from season 4, the show has been produced by the Spanish animation studio People Moving Pixels.[6][7] It was released on YouTube on 30 April 2015. The show was also broadcast on Boomerang UK since September 5, 2016, and Netflix as well, but has since been discontinued but the fifth season is currently airing on Pop.[8][9]

Talking Tom and Friends
Genre	Adventure, Comedy
Created by	Outfit7
Based on	Talking Tom and Friends by Outfit7
Developed by	Boris Dolenc Samo Login Tom Martin
Written by	Tom Martin Boris Dolenc Kevin Pedersen Expand Jack Ferraiolo Guy Toubes John N. Huss Hugh Webber Jim Martin Karen Anderson James Woodham Allen Glazier Marty Abbe-Schneider Erika Martin Julia Cilli Matt Gossen Chris Karwowski Jim Hope Jayne Hamil Becky Feldman Martin Horvat Cameron Hope
Voices of	Colin Hanks James Adomian Tom Kenny Lisa Schwartz Maria Bamford
Theme music composer	Filip Šijanec[1]
Composers	Thomas Kathriner (Seasons 1 - 5)[2][3] Micheal Shawn Lyon (Seasons 4-5)[2][3]
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	155 + 1 pilot episode (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Samo Login Boris Dolenc Kris Staber and Dunja Bernatzky (for ARX Anima)
Running time	11 minutes
Production companies	Outfit7 ARX Anima (seasons 1–3) People Moving Pixels (seasons 4–present)
Distributor	Outfit7 Entertainment
Release
Original network	YouTube & Pop
Original release	23 December 2014 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Talking Friends Talking Tom Shorts Talking Tom and Friends Minis Talking Tom Heroes
External links
Website
Production website

Premise

The series follows Tom, Ben, Angela, Ginger and Hank's everyday lives and misadventures. Although most episodes of the show are made to stand alone, the entire series follows a basic story arc and certain episodes build upon the personalities of recurring characters or major events in the show.

Characters

Main

• Tom (voiced by Colin Hanks) - A grey tabby cat. He creates ideas for new apps and inventions for the company and prefers to be on the business side of things. At times, is also shown to be irresponsible, and usually ends up in trouble due to this. Hanks describes Talking Tom as mischievous, charismatic, energetic and tries to make things; the leader of his gang who likes to have fun.[10][11]
• Ben (voiced by James Adomian) - A brown dog and Tom's best friend. He likes to invent things and work on apps, focusing on its technical aspects such as computer programming. Adomian describes Talking Ben as the brains of the group and a very serious individual,[10] who nevertheless freaks out a lot.[11] In Episode 26 of Season 3, he was banned from using tech by his girlfriend Xenon, who was shown to be working for the agency. After he broke the rule, he was given an electronic bracelet (in Episode 1 of season 4) that would stop him from using tech. However, Ben later managed to get rid of the bracelet.
• Angela (voiced by Lisa Schwartz) - A white cat who is Tom's girlfriend, starting from the end of season 1. She aspires to be a singer. Schwartz describes her as "super fun and girly", and sometimes shy, while outgoing at other times.[10][11][12]
• Ginger (voiced by Maria Bamford) - A young orange-and-white cat and Tom's neighbour (in Talking Friends, he is Tom's nephew. However, he is not shown to be related to Tom in any way in this show). In season one, he claims to be from the second richest family in town. His parents do not spend much time with him, so he does not recognize love, and when Tom and Angela hold hands, dance or kiss, he calls it disgusting.[10]
• Hank (voiced by Tom Kenny) - A white dog with a blue spot around his left eye and blue paws. He is Tom's roommate and enjoys television shows, often claiming to be "in a relationship with the TV". Kenny describes Hank as his sweet spot of doing nice and "stupid" characters.[10]
• Becca Sparkles (voiced by Maria Bamford) (First occurrence: S4 EP9) - A grey rabbit who initially made a diss track about Angela called "Little Miss Perfect", and acted rudely to Angela until she found out that her disliking Angela was because of a misunderstanding. Later on, she was accused by Angela of having a crush on Tom, but revealed that she had a crush on Hank. In "The New Old Roommate", Becca decided to move into Angela's apartment after the ghost leaved.

Recurring

Characters who have recurred across different stories:

• Santa Claus (voiced by Tom Kenny) - An imaginary figure, shown to be a real figure in the show, who shows up in Christmas-themed episodes of the show.
• Dr. Internet Doctor (voiced by Brian Stack) - A medical doctor who runs his practice through web cams. He sometimes pretends to work in other related professions such as being an online therapist.
• The CEO (voiced by Brian Stack) - A rich businessman with whom Tom and his friends occasionally interact with. His given name is Carl. He believes that "CEO" stands for "Chief Everything Officer". Starting in the second season, he has a larger role as a rival intent on finding ways to steal Tom and Ben's inventions or to shut down their company. In later episodes, he even goes as far as trying to kill Tom. In Season 4, he goes on a long vacation and leaves his pet goldfish, Goldie, in charge of the company.
• Jeremy the Germ (voiced by Josh Fadem in seasons 1–3 and Tom Kenny in seasons 4–present) - A germ that and a former antagonist. Although appearing to be cute and sociable, he desires to make everyone sick. In Season 3, Jeremy moves into the garage due to a deal he made with Tom in which he would get rid of certain villains, and has been living there ever since. In season 4, he changes his evil ways and becomes clean and joins the rest of the gang. In the later episodes, he is found to have a brother named Nigel, who tries to make Jeremy evil again, but fails. Later, he lands a job in the diner and leaves to pursue his passion.
• The Landlord (voiced by Dave Willis) - Tom and Ben's landlord, who rents out his garage to them. He dislikes excessive noise and often threatens to evict his tenants if they do anything he dislikes or fail to pay their rent. He is a former ping pong champion. Hank shows deference around him, often using royal vocabulary whenever he appears. In "Talking Roy and Friends" , the landlord is one of the people in the little group helping Tom to uncover Roy's secret room.
• MC (voiced by James Adomian) - An event organiser and host who wears a helmet showing a pixelated display of a face and wears a jersey. In "The Sixth Friend", he reveals his name is Maurice Claremont.
• Rhonda (voiced by Lisa Schwartz) - The waitress at the diner which is often visited by Tom and his friends. In "Waitress Angela", her entire spoon set gets stolen which is shown to have been Roy in "Talking Roy and Friends".
• Victoria Payne (voiced by Suzi Barrett) - A music critic known for being really harsh on upcoming singers. She hosts a show where she gives the singers a thumbs up or thumbs down. Later she is shown to be enemies with Angela, MC and Ricky Deluna.
• Darren (voiced by George Back) - A rich kid who is initially shown to be a rival to Ginger at a tennis tournament. He is later revealed to be the nephew of the CEO. He acts in a snobbish manner around Ginger and the gang, and is later shown to be secretively wishing to become the CEO's heir, often accidentally referring to the CEO as "his inheritance" when the CEO is in danger.He is also one character to help tom to enter Roy's secret room in talking roy and friends
• Will Zee (voiced by Brandon Johnson) - A childhood friend of Tom. Initially a nerdy boy, Will has become a popular professional skateboarder.
• Boomerang (voiced by Tom Kenny) - An artificial intelligence program that Ben fashioned from a portable handheld gaming console. He considers Ben as his father, and quickly progresses through childhood and adolescence, but becomes so advanced that the computer he is in can no longer run him. Being left with no choice, Ben releases him into the Internet.
• Xenon (voiced by Robin Reed) - A nerdy girl who is initially shown to be working at an electronics store, who becomes Ben's love interest. She and Ben regularly chat using webcams, and she goes on dates with Ben using a computer tablet. Starting from Episode 26 of Season 3, she is shown to be working for a mysterious organisation referred to as "the Agency". She and Ben get along again after Ben discovers that Xenon is still supportive of him.
• Mel (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Flo (voiced by Maria Bamford) - Members of the "S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S." (The Super Mentally Advanced Really Truly Intellectually Endowed Society). Mel and Flo both have white hair and generally wear white lab coats and black-framed glasses. After Ben quit the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S because Mel and Flo were mocking his friends, they act rudely to Ben and claim that Ben quit their club because he was a failure. They are two of the people who helps Tom uncover Roy's secret room in "Talking Roy and Friends".
• Ms. Vanthrax (voiced by Laraine Newman) - Ginger's school teacher, who also used to teach Tom and Ben. She enjoys creating new kinds of punishment for her students. In a later episode, she and the Landlord fall in love after Tom and the gang try to bring them together so that the Landlord does not sell the garage. In season 4, she is revealed to be a monster hunter. She is one of the people who helps Tom uncover Roy's secret room in, "Talking Roy and Friends".
• Ricky Deluna (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) - A famous actor and dancer, who initially is shown as the host of a talent show. In a later episode, Ricky tries to steal Angela away from Tom during a music video they were doing together, but fails. In season 4, he uses a music concert as a ruse to get rid of MC, Victoria Payne and Angela, but it caught and arrested.
• Ronnie (voiced by James Adomian) - A scout-mate and classmate of Ginger. He has brown curly hair and wears large round glasses. He is an expert at the SquareStack video game.
• Autumn Summers (voiced by Greg Manwaring in season 1 and Maria Bamford in season 3-present) - A fashion company executive, who is the host of most fashion shows, and with whom Tom and Angela interact occasionally. In season 4, she hires Tom as a model, and fires him for leaving the stage to save Ginger. She is one of the people who helps Tom uncover Roy's secret room in , "Talking Roy and Friends".
• Bongo (voiced by Tom Kenny) and McGillicuddy (voiced by James Adomian) - The protagonists of Hank's favorite TV show, named "Bongo and McGillicuddy". Bongo is a human police officer and McGillicuddy is his assistant, an orangutan. They occasionally interact with Hank when either Hank enters their world or when they enter Hank's world. In their first appearance, it is shown that they watch "Talking Tom and Friends" as a show.
• Roy Rakoon (voiced by Tom Kenny) - Tom's new neighbour, a raccoon who initially appears to be a rich, cool philanthropic guy but is later revealed to be a criminal and Tom's new nemesis. He is the main antagonist of the fifth season.

Episodes

Season		Episodes		Originally released
				First released	Last released
	Pilot			23 December 2014
	1	52		30 April 2015	29 December 2016
	2	26		15 June 2017	8 March 2018
	3	26		10 May 2018	27 December 2018
	4	26		16 May 2019	27 March 2020
	5	26		8 May 2020	TBA
	Minisodes	8		February 5, 2015	February 4, 2016

Reception and Accolades

Talking Tom and Friends has generally received mixed to positive reviews. The show is currently rated 6.3/10 on IMDb.[13] The show is also rated three stars out of five by Common Sense Media, which states "Talking Tom and Friends centers on the animated stars of a popular app series, so kids who know and love them will want to watch their TV antics. On the whole, the content is fine for kids, and there's plenty of silliness (and some body noises and humor) to keep them entertained. That's the show's main intent, so don't expect many teaching moments. The characters argue and get on each other's nerves at times, and some squabbles get physical with tussles and wrestling, but there are no injuries."[14]

In 2016, the show won the Cablefax Program Awards for Best Animated Series.[15][16] The show is currently available on YouTube, where the show's official channel has 11 million subscribers as of May 2020.[17]

References

1. "Filip Sijanec". IMDb. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
2. Untalking Tom - Talking Tom and Friends (Season 1 Episode 1) - REFER END CREDITS, retrieved 10 April 2020
3. Neighbour Roy - Talking Tom and Friends - Season 5 Episode 1 - REFER END CREDITS, retrieved 13 May 2020
4. Talking Tom and Friends - The audition (Season 1 Episode 0) (Refer end credits), retrieved 26 March 2020
5. Glitch Apocalypse - Talking Tom and Friends - Season 3 Episode 26, retrieved 13 May 2020
6. Where's Angela? - Talking Tom and Friends, Season 4 Episode 1 (Refer end credits), retrieved 26 March 2020
7. Escape: Impossible! - Talking Tom and Friends, Season 4 Episode 25 (Refer end credits), retrieved 26 March 2020
8. "Talking Tom and Friends - Netflix". www.netflix.com. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
9. Desk, TV News. "YouTube Hit TALKING TOM AND FRIENDS: THE SERIES Gets Season 2 Order". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
10. Talking Tom and Friends (19 January 2017). "Talking Tom and Friends – Meet the Cast". YouTube. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
11. Talking Tom and Friends (20 April 2017). "The Voices of Talking Tom and Friends – Behind the Scenes". YouTube. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
12. "Talking Angela Actress Lisa Schwartz Celebrates The Characters' Birthday". Yahoo!. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
13. Talking Tom and Friends - IMDb, retrieved 17 May 2020
14. "Talking Tom and Friends - TV Review". www.commonsensemedia.org. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
15. Milligan, Mercedes (8 August 2016). "'Counterfeit Cat,' 'Talking Tom' Win Cablefax Awards". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
16. "Cablefax Magazine - September 2016". Cablefax Magazine. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
17. "Talking Tom and Friends". YouTube. Retrieved 12 May 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Talking Tom and Friends: The Animated Series at IMDb